Full Pundit: Justin Trudeau — new skin for the old ceremony?

Full Pundit: Justin Trudeau — new skin for the old ceremony?

Scenes from a Liberal reinventionThe Toronto Star‘s Thomas Walkom watches Justin Trudeau in action at a University of Toronto event and sees, on the one hand, some pretty bog-standard Liberalism; but he says “there was something there beyond the standard weave and dodge.” Ah, intriguing. Do go on, sir! “A sense of optimism maybe. A kind of infectious enthusiasm.” Oh. So, he’s an optimistic, infectiously enthusiastic Liberal weaver-dodger. That’s kinda novel, we suppose.

“I want to lead the Liberal Party of Canada because I want to bring a new generation of Canadian leadership to bear on the challenges that we face,” Justin Trudeau himself writes for Huffington Post. “By empowering new Canadian voices, by inspiring public service and awakening public purpose, we can move our country forward together.” Uh … huh. We can only assume it sounds more compelling in person.

Well, at least he supports decriminalizing marijuana — that’s something! The Vancouver Sun‘s Barbara Yaffeand its editorialistsget behind the push for a 2014 referendum on marijuana decriminalization, and urge British Columbians to help Sensible B.C. gather the necessary number of signatures to make it happen. Naturally Ottawa wouldn’t play ball, the editorial concedes, but as the “provinces are responsible for the administration of justice, including policing priorities,” Victoria is free to “amend its Police Act to direct police away from taking any action against individuals for marijuana possession, while treating underage marijuana possession the way we currently treat underage drinking.” It’s not legalization, which is what we self-evidently need, but it’s a start.

Considering the general dilapidation of Ontario’s current Liberal government, TheGlobe and Mail‘s Adam Radwanski thinks it’s pleasantly surprising that, based on the details released thus far, negotiations with the province’s doctors seem to have yielded “precisely the sort of [cost savings] that will be needed to allow the health system to survive both the province’s ongoing financial woes and its looming demographic crunch.” Who needs the legislature, anyway?

And because the Ontario Liberals tend not to elect leaders from Toronto, and because Sandra Pupatello is not from Toronto, the Star‘s inimitable Bob Hepburn declares that Sandra Pupatello shall win the Ontario Liberal leadership race.

Still in Ontario, the Ottawa Citizen‘s shockingly heartless editorialistssay “no” to a mother who wants her daughter’s school to chop down oak trees lest its acorns sow fear and/or anaphylaxis allergic students. If “the knowledge that acorns are nearby” is actually “causing distress to children who have allergies,” as this mother suggests, then the Citizen thinks it might be “time for a re-examination of what these children have been taught about what allergies are and how to deal with them.” The Citizen is correct. And that prescription goes for peanuts, too.

Money matters“Yes,” Postmedia’s Andrew Coyne concedes, “both [Canada’s] deficit and debt are at manageable levels, now. But they seemed pretty manageable on the verge of past fiscal precipices, too. As late as 1977 the federal debt-to-GDP ratio was just 21%; a decade later it was over 50%.” What we need, says Coyne, is some incentive for politicians not just to get us into relatively good financial position, but objectively good financial position, to “forestall the crisis from ever arriving” — some kind of artificial fiscal cliff, in other words.

Despite official assurances to the contrary, Paul Wells of Maclean’s is doubtful the Canada-E.U. free trade deal will get done by the Dec. 31 deadline, in large part because its opponents have “outflanked” Stephen Harper, who thought he could get this thing done on the down low, “on every side.”

Duly notedThe Montreal Gazette‘s Don Macpherson thinks the election (by councillors) of Michael Applebaum to serve out Gérald Tremblay’s term as Mayor of Montreal might “put a crack” in the city’s and Quebec’s pretty appalling “glass ceiling” for anglophones. And if he’s not elected, Macpherson suggests it will raise an uncomfortable question: was it his ability in French (which Macpherson deems sufficient, if accented), or “his name, and the fact that French isn’t his first language,” that did him in?

“Assassin’s Creed III is just a video game,” the Globe‘s editorialists concede. But — wowsers — but, they worry that “it might be the only place that Canadian young people are learning about the Revolutionary War.” (Well, it’s supposed to be for ages 17 and up, as it contains “blood, intense violence, sexual themes” and blue language. So if that’s the case, parents have as much to answer for as schools and Ubisoft.) As such, they are highly concerned that the game’s suggestion that “indigenous peoples rallied to the side of the colonists in their fight for freedom grotesquely twists the facts.” And so they set the record straight, presumably for the benefit of all those young people who read Globe and Mail editorials.